Paul Benz pleads guilty

Paul Benz, Sr., plead guilty this morning in Kern County Superior Court to one count of filing a false claim.

This shuts the door on an ongoing saga that spanned three years and led to one of the most contentious fights in Ridgecrest's history.

According to City Attorney Keith Lemieux, Benz agreed this morning to plead guilty to the charge, as well as paying Ridgecrest $575,000 and dropping outstanding lawsuits against the city.

Lemieux said Benz will be placed on three years probation.

In all, Benz is being ordered to pay nearly $2.4 million in restitution to the city and to Kern County.

Benz is required to leave the company and pay $2,375,000 in restitution, according to a release today from the California Attorney General.

The remaining $1.8 million will go to the county.

He will also be placed on felony probation.

The Attorney General also said Benz Sanitation will place GPS trackers on all vehicles to provide location data to Kern County. County officials will randomly audit the company’s records, will review weight tickets in the company’s scale house, and barcode all vehicles by route.

Between January 2008 and September 2012, Benz Sanitation had a waste removal services contract with Kern County that allowed it to take Kern County’s residential garbage and deposit it at local landfills at no charge.

During this time, Benz Sanitation also contracted with almost 1,500 residents and businesses in Los Angeles County to remove their residential and commercial garbage.

"Benz then manipulated these contracts by fraudulently mislabeling the Los Angeles County garbage as originating in Kern County so that he could dump it free of charge in Kern County’s landfills," the statement read.

This fight started when the state recycling board, then known as the California Integrated Waste Management Board and later becoming Cal Recycle, said Ridgecrest's recycling diversion rate was below state standards.

This led to the City Council implementing a mandatory recycling program to go through Benz Sanitation and sparking a firestorm in the community when the trash rates went up.

Eventually, after some in the public refused to pay the extra fees, the city agreed to an opt-out clause where residents could choose to recycle on their own, starting a legal fight between Ridgecrest and Benz.

Through this fight, Ridgecrest learned Benz' franchise agreement expired and starting in September 2011, Waste Management took over waste hauling.

When that happened, some irregularities in the diversion rate were discovered and prompted an investigation with the Ridgecrest Police Department. In May, RPD served a search warrant Benz' offices in Tehachapi leading to speculation that an arrest would come within weeks of that service.

According to Lemieux, Benz started negotiating with the Attorney General's office for a plea, which was finally ironed out this morning.